Jess Winfield

"I knew him... a fellow of infinite jest."

POSTED 8/3/2011
REDUCED SHAKESPEARE
COMPANY 30TH ANNIVERSARY LIVE
WEBCASTCurrent Reduced Shakespeare Company
members Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor are joined by
original members Jess Winfield, Daniel Singer, and Sa
Winfield to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first
-ever performance by the RSC. Tune in for their
reminiscences, embarrassing anecdotes, and war stories
athttp://www.ustream.tv/channel/reduced-shakespeare-company.
Monday, Aug. 8, 3pm-5pm PST. The webcast will also be
available for subsequent offline viewing at the same
link.

POSTED 7/21/2011
ESSAY COMING FROM
VANTAGE BOOKSJess is contributing an essay on
“Re-revising Shakespeare” to THE POETS AND THE PLAYERS:
IMAGINING SHAKESPEARE IN OUR TIME, edited by Susannah
Carson and coming soon from Vantage/Anchor books.
POSTED 7/30/2009
MY NAME IS
WILLAUDIOBOOK NOW AVAILABLE
Download the
unabridged audio version oniTunesorAudible.com.Performed by Jess himself.

TIP A PINT WITH JESS AT
CROWN & ANCHOR IN THOUSAND OAKS
Is there a better
place to discuss Shakespeare than a pub? Jess will read and
answer questions on Thursday, August 13, 7:30pm, atCrown &
Anchor.

POSTED 7/22/2009
MY NAME IS
WILLAUDIOBOOK AVAILABLE
7/29/09
Download the
unabridged audio version oniTunesorAudible.com. Performed by Jess
himself.

COME SEE JESS LIVE AT
LA'S BOOK SOUP
Jess will read
and discuss the influence his experiences in TV and Film on
his work. Think you've found a TV inspired scene inMY NAME IS
WILL? You may
have.
Wednesday, July 29, 7:00pm, atBook Soupon the Sunset
Strip.

POSTED 7/16/2009
MY NAME IS
WILLA RECOMMENDED READ
ATTHE DAILY
BEASTTina Brown'sThe Daily BeastcallsMy Name Is Will"William Shakespeare meets
Looney Tunes."TOP SHELF:MY NAME
IS WILLTOPS THE LIST AT SAN
FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
The
Chronicle'sTop Shelfrecommendations were compiled by the
venerableMoe's Books, in Berkley. Jess was thrilled to
seeMy Name Is
Willtop the
list.
POSTED 6/21/2009
MY NAME IS
WILLIN PAPERBACK NOW!
Although the
official release date of MY NAME IS WILL in paperback is
July 3, it's shipping now from amazon.com.My Name
Is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and
Shakespeare"
rel="external">Click hereto get your copy now.

MY NAME IS WILLA CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARD
FINALIST
Jess recently
attended the awards ceremony for the Commonwealth Club's
78th annual California Book Awards in San Francisco. MY
NAME IS WILL was a finalist in the category of First
Fiction. Jess is honored to have been nominated for the
awards, whose past winners have included John Steinbeck,
Joan Didion, Aldous Huxley, William Saroyan, T.C. Boyle,
and Ray Bradbury. For a complete list of nominees and
winners,click here.

POSTED 3/27/2009
ON NPR'S "ABOUT BOOKS"
WITH FAYE CLOW
Jess will be
discussing My Name Is Will, Shakespeare in general, and his
own writing process on WVIK-FM at 10:00 am Central, noon
Pacific on Saturday, March 28. You can catch the
streamhere. Or if you miss the live broadcast,
visitWVIK's archiveto hear the interview.
POSTED 2/6/2009
BOOK TOUR LAUNCH PODCAST
NOW ONLINE
If you missed the
grand opening event for Jess's summer book tour -- a
conversation with the Shakespeare scholar and director
Louis Fantasia as part of the Los Angeles Public Library's
prestigious "ALOUD" lecture series -- a recording of the
entire event is now online.Click hereto get the podcast from the LAPL
library website.

POSTED 12/14/2008
DAS FILMS OPTIONS FILM
RIGHTS TO "MY NAME IS WILL"
Film rights to
Jess's novel, MY NAME IS WILL, have been optioned by Das
Films, which recently completed production on an adaptation
of Paolo Coelho's novel VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE (starring
Sarah Michelle Gellar), together with Richard Saperstein,
former president of Dimension Films, whose credits include
HANCOCK, SEVEN, and Stephen King's 1408. Shara Kay will
executive produce.

POSTED 12/3/2008
COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) [REVISED] IN MIAMI
For the first
time in a decade, the Reduced Shakespeare Company is
performing the show that started it all, in a newly revised
and updated text prepared by Jess and RSC founder Daniel
Singer. The show runs through at the Arsht Center for the
Performing Arts in Miami. Check out theexcellent reviewof the revised show in the Miami
Herald.

JESS ON RSC PODCAST: PT.
II.
The RSC podcast
features Jess discussing the whys and wherefores
behindThe Complete
Work of William Shakespeare (abridged)
[revised]with
Austin Tichenor. You can check it out over at theReduced Shakespeare Co.
website

POSTED 10/21/2008
JESS AT THE FOLGER
SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY
Jess will be
appearing at the Folger Shakespeare Library, discussing My
Name Is Will, on Monday, January 27 at 7:30 pm. The Folger
is the largest Shakespearean scholarship institution in the
world, and it should be a lively evening. For more
information, visit theFolger events website.

POSTED 10/21/2008
INTERVIEW ON THE RSC
PODCAST
The highly rated
RSC podcast featured an in-depth interview with Jess about
his new book, his early days with the RSC, and a
wide-ranging set of topics in discussion with Austin
Tichenor. You can check it out over at theReduced Shakespeare Co.
website.
POSTED 10/9/2008
JESS IN
MINNEAPOLISThe
Twin Cities Festival of Books, hosted by R A I N T A X I,
has Jess as one of its features authors. He'll be reading
and signing MY NAME IS WILL at 3:30 at the MInneapolis
Community & Technical College Auditorium. Visit
www.raintaxi.com for more info.

POSTED 8/4/2008
NPRBOOKS WE
LIKE: "IN WILL, ALL'S WELL"
NPR online has
posteda great reviewby Lizzie Skurnick. "ls there another
author today who would begin a tale of Shakespeare and
self-discovery with two naughty references to the human
anatomy and one use of a controlled substance?"
POSTED 8/3/2008WEST COAST
LIVE APPEARANCE
Jess's appearance on NPR's West Coast Live
featured Jess reading (at host Mike Greensill's request)
from his 1995 piece JAM JOY YES: James Joyce's Ulysses
(abridged). He also performed the prologue to
Romeo and Juliet in the voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose.
POSTED
7/28/2008
BLOOMBERG.COM
RUNS STELLAR REVIEW
Jeffrey Burke has writtena very complimentary review
of WILL: "Happily outrageous . . . The sex throughout is
well done and not for the prim... Well done, Winfield."

NEW
YORK TIMES: "EDITOR'S CHOICE!"
We've received advance word that MY NAME IS WILL will be an
"EDITOR'S CHOICE" in the New York Times
Book Review
for Sunday, August 3. The Times has been very kind to the
book, mentioning it three out of the four past weeks.

JESS
ON RADIO THIS WEEK
Jess will be featured on two prominent radio programs
during the San Francisco Bay Area leg of hisbook tour:
West Coast Live, Saturday at 10:00 am on NPR
(click here for a list of nationally
syndicated stations),
and KQED’s Forum with Michael Krasny on Wednesday July
30.
POSTED 7/25/2008
NEW
YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW: "A LUSTY, PUN-DRUNK FIRST NOVEL."
The
New York Times Book Review of MY NAME IS WILL isonline now.
It's a lively piece about the novel that draws heavily
on Jess's cartoony past to generate a mash-up that jumps
blithely from references to Snagglepuss and Elmer Fudd
to "British literato Walter Savage Landor." Does the
Liesl Schillinger, the reviewer, like the book or not?
"I'm not sure. I think she calls me a scurvy cur and a
varlet," Jess said when asked about the piece. "But who
cares, it's good writing."

The review also includes a link toa great piece
by New York Times blogger Jennifer Schuessler about the
Brooklyn book crawl.

POSTED 7/23/2008MY
NAME IS WILL: PAGE 69 TESTMarshall
Zeringue's AmericaReads blogfeatures My Name Is Will
in his series on the Page 69 test: does page 69 of any
given novel represent the book as a whole? Jess provides an
interesting take on the question by contrasting the Page 69
from his original manuscript with the final, printed
version.

POSTED 7/22/2008
BOOKPAGE
gives MY NAME IS WILL a great review!The
periodical's August issue, which is distributed to nearly
half a million subscribers including libraries nationwide,
says "Winfield's heroes vault off the page in 3-D,
Technicolor, surround-sound exuberance."

LOS
ANGELES TIMES RAVES ABOUT
MY NAME IS WILL!
The Sunday Los Angeles Times Book Review 7/20 features a
terrific review of Jess's new novel, calling it
"hilarious," "fascinating" . . . "cunningly witty,"
"frolicsome," and "high-spirited."Read the whole review
here.

NEW
COMIC-CON TIME
Jess will be appearing at San Diego Comic-Con, in a panel
entitled "Eye on the Past," Thursday, Jul. 24, at 5:00 pm
(revised from 6:00pm), in Room 8. He'll also be signing at
the Hachette Book Group USA booth, Friday at 2:00.

RADIO INTERVIEW ON WNYC
Jess was a featured guest on WNYC with Leonard Lopate last
week. Audio of the interview is here. (Latest version of Adobe
Flash required).

RADIO INTERVIEW ON KQED
Jess will appear on NPR's West Coast Live,
Saturday, August 2, 10:00am. Check local NPR listings for
details.